Among the lawsuits is one from a Union Square building super who says he fell down the elevator shaft when its doors opened before the car arrived. His lawyer says Transel had bypassed the elevator’s parking device, which would have otherwise kept the doors from opening onto the empty shaft. In another suit, a woman fell forward into an elevator that stopped and opened 8 inches above the floor she’d called it to.

Eight active cases against Transel sounds scary, even terrifying, but keep in mind these elevator stats reported by theNew York Times:

The odds of dying in a New York City elevator are minuscule.

Sixty thousand elevators, literally billions of passenger-trips per year, and in 2010, three fatalities, at least some of which did not involve passengers.

Still, we say, better safe than sorry. If the elevator looks wonky, don’t get on it. And tell someone!

While Transel’s website currently says nothing about the lawsuits or the tragedy that killed Hart, the Post reports that the company has released a statement saying its “top priority has been, and continues to be, the safety of our elevators and the security of those who use them.”